Falling enrollment continues to be problem for Kalamazoo Christian schools

Mark Bugnaski | Kalamazoo GazetteFirst grade teacher Lauren Manting teaches a Spanish immersion class at Kalamazoo Christian Elementary School on Thursday. After Oct. 15, only Spanish will be spoken in the classroom.

KALAMAZOO — Enrollment continues to be a worry for the 134-year-old Kalamazoo Christian School Association, which has seen its numbers drop by a third in the past seven years.

A week into the 2011-12 school year, the school system has 786 students in grades K-12, down 18 students from fall 2010.

The student drop appeared to be concentrated at Kalamazoo Christian High School, which went from 269 students in 2010-11 to 250 now. That's mainly because the Class of 2011 was larger than the classes behind it, school officials say.

Only four years ago, K-Christian High School had more than 400 students and the K-12 system enrolled almost 1,100. Still, this fall's enrollment numbers contained some good news: After years of sliding enrollment, it appears the KCSA was able to retain most of its returning students for this school year.

"We graduated 86, which is a very large class, and brought in 62 kindergartners, which is average, so you could say that we retained very well," said Roger Sikkenga, who started as KCSA superintendent in summer 2010. "But I'm still not happy.

"When I came last year, I had two goals," Sikkenga said. "One was to lower tuition by $1,000 and the other was to stabilize enrollment and start with 800 students this year. Well, we're 14 less than that."

He said enrollment is likely to be a major topic of discussion at the next meeting of the KCSA board on Monday.

The next moves may include another tuition drop and perhaps a marketing campaign, Sikkenga said.

"We haven't done much historically to recruit students," the superintendent said. "Maybe we need to be a little more aggressive about that. ... We also might reduce tuition a bit more, maybe $200 or $300."

The enrollment trend for the K-12 system — which includes K-Christian High School, Kalamazoo Christian Middle School and Kalamazoo Christian Elementary — has been worrisome for years.

The KCSA had more than 1,200 students in 2004-05, and enrollment has been eroding steadily since. A range of factors appear to be to blame: A shrinking school-age population in Michigan; Michigan's lackluster economy, which has hurt private schools across the state; the impact of The Kalamazoo Promise; and K-Christian's own tuition hikes.

"The tuition kept escalating, and got to the point where it was about $8,000 a student," Sikkenga said. "Well, if you have three children and you're making $60,000, you're spending a good part of that on tuition.

"It got to the point where families with an average income were saying, 'We want this, but we can't do this anymore.' "

Sikkenga and the KCSA have spent the past year restructuring the system with an eye towards boosting enrollment and maximizing fiscal efficiency. To that end, the KCSA has lowered tuition by about $1,000 a student for 2011-12, and offered a discount for families with multiple children in the system.

Under the new rate schedule, tuition will is $7,950 at Kalamazoo Christian High School, $6,950 at Kalamazoo Christian Middle School and $5,950 at Kalamazoo Christian Elementary School. The kindergarten program is $4,950 for a five-day-a-week program and $3,900 for three days a week.

The KCSA also started a preschool and kindergarten program that offers Spanish immersion, so that students can become bilingual. That program has been expanded to first grade this fall.

Contact Julie Mack at jmack@kalamazoogazette.com or 269-388-8578.

Downward trend

Below is fall enrollment at Kalamazoo Christian High School and for the entire K-12 system operated by the Kalamazoo Christian School Association.